NATIVe - Indigenous Cinema

The Exiles

Supporting film: Circle of the Sun

Sun, Feb 17, 2013
5 pm
Admission: 9 €

Circle of the Sun

D: Colin Low

Canada 1960, 29 min, OV

Invoking the sky, the earth and the ever-symbolic circle, this visually powerful documentary is the first filmic record of the traditional sun dance ceremony of Canada’s Kainai tribe. Narrated by Pete Standing Alone, who explains his ancestors’ rituals.


The Exiles

D: Kent Mackenzie

USA 1961, 72 min, OV

The story revolves around a group of young Native Americans who director Kent Mackenzie met while doing research in the LA district of Bunker Hill. This is where Yvonne, a pregnant Apache woman lives with her Hualapi husband Homer, sharing their tiny apartment with the charismatic Tommy from Mexico and four Native American women. By night, the men go out drinking, gambling and flirting, while Yvonne goes to the cinema alone or wanders longingly past the shops. The documentary-style black-and-white images capture intense fragments of life in the big city and provide a snapshot of a displaced generation, torn between their origins and everyday urban life.